Best Granola Ever

Crunchy, chewy, fruity, nutty, there are infinite granola flavors and each one is as delicious as the last. It has but one flaw: the price! $5 for a 12oz box that’s mostly air!

I purchased a 42-ounce container of Old-Fashioned oats for less than that! I’m willing to bet you’ve got most of these ingredients in your cupboard now.

Both recipes I’m sharing use the same base ingredients:

Dry:

1.5c Old-Fashioned Oats

1/4c Corn Chex, crushed

1/4c Rice Krispies

1/4c Pretzels, crushed

Sticky:

2Tbs Butter, softened

1Tbs+ Honey, warm

1Tbs+ Peanut Butter, warm (optional)

1Tbs+ Maple Syrup (optional)

1Tbs+ Coconut Oil (optional)

Mix-Ins:

1/4c+ Nuts (pecans, almonds, cashews), chopped

1/4c+ Dried Fruit (raisins, cranberries, bananas)

1/4c+ Seeds (Sunflower, flax, chia)

1/4c+ Chocolate Chunks

It’s impossible to mess this one up! It’s also incredibly easy to double, so you can easily make a batch to last the whole week. It’s literally a big jumble of deliciousness.

Basic Granola:

In a big bowl, blend warm peanut butter (10sec. in microwave should do the trick), honey and softened butter. Then add oats, chex, crispies, and nuts until you get a consistency and flavor you like. I used approximately 1/2c of almonds and pecans mixed, and also added some seeds for even more crunch. Chia and Quinoa are other great options! For a more savory flavor, drizzle some maple syrup into the mix. Remember, clumps are good!

From here, you can bake your granola into clumps or bars, or flatten your mix and freeze to cut into classic chewy granola bars later. I really like my granola crunchy, so I baked mine at 300*F on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for about 20 minutes. The longer you bake, the more crunch your your mix will pack. I recommend baking for 10 minutes to start, then checking on the crunchiness and going from there. When you’re satisfied, remove the sheet of granola and let it cool for at least 10 minutes. Otherwise, it will crumble from the clumps when you move it. Granola that is frozen generally comes out more chewy and compact, perfect for protein-packed snacks to take on the go!

Fruity Chew

Start again with a large bowl and into it add your softened butter and honey. Because I omitted peanut butter in this recipe, I doubled the honey. Another option would be coconut oil, but because these bars aim to be more chewy and chunky, I stuck with just honey and butter. Again add the chex, crispies and nuts. I went slightly less crazy with the nuts this time around and only used about 1/3c total. I made up for the lack of nuts with dried fruit, adding 1/4c each of cranberries and cherries and also added a handful of raisins and seeds. Mix very well, making sure honey is coating everything.

Press your mixture into the bottom of an 8-inch round baking dish lined with parchment paper until your granola becomes some-what flat. I baked this mix on the bottom rack of my oven for about 10 minutes, then moved it to the top for the last 5. If you’d rather yours be crunchy, simply bake a little longer. Let granola cool for at least 10 minutes, then you can lift the parchment paper and granola out of the pan and cut however you like.

Good luck resisting the smell of sweet amazingness coming from your oven! My husband and I devoured half a batch last night, fresh and warm from the oven. I’m officially addicted to this treat! Packed with protein and fiber, antioxidants and vitamins galore, I don’t feel so bad about it.